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DfE Approval of City & Guilds Technical Qualifications

The Department for Education has now approved all 147 of our 14-19 Qualifications to be used for the 2018 performance tables and ready for teaching from September 2016. To view the full list visit

cityandguilds/dfeapproved

City & Guilds TechBac

City & Guilds Workplace Skills and Skills Zone

City & Guilds Workplace Skills: Preparing learners for employment

There is increasing pressure to make your learners more employable than ever before, and City & Guilds Workplace Skills is a unique learning package that will help them to stand out from the crowd.

Workplace Skills has been created to help learners develop the ‘soft’ skills and behaviours employers tell us young people often lack when they enter the workplace. Learners work on 24 workplace skills through rich elearning and online activities as well as practical hands-on experiences.

City & Guilds Workplace Skills consists of five main elements:

Work placement support – where learners get access to elearning including an interactive logbook to help them get the most from their placement

All of this is brought together through Skills Zone, our online learning hub which is the gateway to Workplace Skills. City & Guilds Workplace Skills can be delivered as an additional element to all 14-19 programmes of study and is also part of the City & Guilds TechBac – a new approach to skills-based education for 14-19 year olds.

Maths & English

Updates for England - Functional Skills

We are reviewing our sample and live assessment materials at Entry level. As a result, you will notice some refreshed materials and new topics during 2016-17.

Functional Skills Writing Level 1 and 2 (3748)

We will be extending the timings for Reading and Writing assessments at levels 1 and 2. These changes will be introduced from autumn 2016.

e-Functional Skills

Our end-to-end support tool for Functional Skills will be refreshed to include additional resources to support the development of reading skills.

Developmental qualifications (English/Mathematics Skills 3847 and Principles of English and Maths 3844)

We continue to offer a range of developmental qualifications and units in English and mathematics, sometimes described as ‘stepping stones’ or ‘gateway’ qualifications. Many of the qualifications at Entry level meet the Condition of Funding for 16-18 Study Programmes, while a wide range of qualifications and units at all levels meet Skills Funding Agency requirements for the coming year.

The Functional Skills Reform programme

The Reform Programme being led by the Education and Training Foundation with delivery partner Pye Tait is progressing in line with published timeframes and aims to deliver standards, subject content and final report to the Education and Training Foundation at the end of August 2016.

Updates for Northern Ireland

Essential Skills
Following the recent announcement from the Department for Employment (DEL) about the ‘refresh’ of Essential Skills the current Essential Skills qualifications in Communication and Application of Number (3800-40 and 3800-50) will be closing to new registrations on 31 August 2016. We’re currently working with CCEA Regulation to finalise details of the revised qualifications that are due to be launched for first teaching from this September.

Updates for Wales

Essential Skills
We’re continuing to work on the implementation of the revised Essential Skills Wales qualifications (3868). The confirmatory tests for both Essential Communication Skills (ECommS) and Essential Application of Number Skills (EAoNS) are now available for onscreen delivery through the e-volve system, and it’s also possible to book paper-based tests, as well as Welsh medium (for ECommS) and bilingual (for EAoNS). We’re continuing to work with the other awarding bodies to roll out further controlled tasks.

Financially supporting 19+ Learners in advancing their studies

The existing 24+ Advanced Learners Loans will be lowered to 19+ as of the 1st August 2016. Learners are now able to apply for these 19+ loans, although learners will not be able to start the qualification until after 1st August 2016. The loan is now valid for anyone over the age of 19 wishing to study at level 3 to level 6. This government-backed loan can be used to fund all or part of the cost of study and repayments don’t begin until the learner is earning at least £21,000.

City & Guilds Advance & CPD Events

City & Guilds Advance delivers learner success strategies through outcome-focused consultancy, training & implementation and covers Curriculum Design and Innovation, Leadership and delivery staff development, embedding education funding and policy changes. These events will help centres ensure they are meeting legislative and regulatory requirements, as well as giving their delivery staff the confidence to teach and assess the new qualification standards. Our training is available at locations across the country, view our calendar at cityandguilds.com/advance or sign up to receive updates in the relevant sector via the preference centre. We can also accommodate any training programmes you would like to be delivered in-house. Enquire about our in-house CPD training here.

"The big achievement from using the Advance service is the huge increase in our success rates." Leslyn Linton-Proctor, director of teaching and learning at North West Kent College

Service Improvements & Updates to Platform

Learning Assistant Updates

Over the last few months, the City & Guilds Learning Assistant team has been supporting our centres in switching on LA Connect. This is by far the most exciting development in Learning Assistant, and has seen some real improvements for centres in both time and reduction in errors. LA Connect simply brings Learning Assistant + Walled Garden + e-volve into one easy data flow.

The City & Guilds Learning Assistant team has also been focusing on some key customer features to improve the user experience. Some of these new and upgraded features include:

Unit status included in the IQA’s sampling task list – making it easier for verifiers to manage their sample plans from the homepage.

Evidence permission for Registrars – giving centres more autonomy to grant various levels of access to registrars, now to include access to a learner’s evidence folder.